The Happy Gardener

And so a new year is here. Another revolution, another year. A brand new, freshly minted, set of days. I am not usually big on grand celebrations on the occasion of a new year but I see the point. The ado. Say what you want about the future but there is no arguing about the fact that it is not fully predictable. It is unknown. Sure, you might find at the end of the year 2011 that nothing much has changed in the last dozen months but you don't know that now. Things may be different or not. The un-absoluteness. Hence the excitement. Yes, yes - Hope & Celebrations. Good stuff. As is custom (and when I say custom, I mean I have done this once in the past), I have decided to do retrospective of the year now past. It was a good year. By all counts, it was. I am deeply grateful for all of it. So this should be fun. Let's see : Ianuarius, Februarius, Martius : A hectic bunch of months. Looking for an apartment in the city, the relief of finding one that I like, The Big Move ( I act...

That's right. I wasn't able to decide what to name the blog and since both of them were related anyways, I chose to name it Getafix or Druid. Sigh. It's 1:52 am. I should not be up. I should be in sweet sweet slumber laced with some fantastic dreams. But I am up. And so I shall blog. It was a productive day. WFH day. The lesser said about the actual amount of office work done, the better. On the other hand, I finally did my laundry and cleaned my fridge. There is always a silver lining. I should just figure out how to work that into my weekly report now. So it's PR's Annual Christmas Dinner tomorrow night and I was suddenly seized with an urge to contribute to the menu. I will put this down to C's evil influence. (Interesting : C's first appearance on the blog. Association with the word Evil. Hmmm) Anywho. So there was the urge. And we all know how I get after that. So I finished up my chores in the evening and was planning on heading out to the stores to pr...

Have I used this title before? Will google blogger alert me if I did? This is becoming a common question. Maybe this is a sign that I blog too much. Oh well. I have been thinking about ambition lately. About what it means and what it means to me, in particular. I always believed that I wasn't very ambitious. I am only now finding out that that isn't really true. Sure, I might not be driven to assume powerful positions or rake in loads of money. Or become world famous. No, what I am after is broader, less measurable and yet far more tangible to me. Freedom and control. Freedom to work around my life and its' schedules and control over how I spend my time. A life that allows me to learn and grow, hopefully at work too. Learn and grow for the sake of learning and growth. A life where the everyday realities, practicalities and cynicism are well balanced by dreams and hopes realized. Where joy is a frequent visitor and laughter can be taken for granted every once in a while. Whe...

Don't really have my thoughts in order for the post but will go ahead anyways. - If you watch enough weekend TV, you'll realize that most of the world is available for $19.95. Plus shipping and handling, of course. - Running 3 miles on the treadmill after a looong break of laziness and over indulgence , coming home plenty tired and undoing those 30 mins by going after dinner like you were coming after a month of fasting : sad, and kinda disgusting. Realizing that Monday Night Football, that you don't get to watch usually, 'cause you are one of 15 people in Boston who gets only basic cable, is now accessible on one of those basic 12 channels 'cause the home team is playing the Jets (which makes for an awesome 9:2, 9:2 match up): priceless - *Note : This could quickly turn bad if the Patriots proceed to own the opposition and turn the game into a long boring stretch of Patriot awesomeness, as they are wont to do. - We don't really seem to change much from how we ...

So, in a rare occurrence, I actually had decided what I wanted to write about this evening. The subject was going to be The Home Bell. But events have transpired since that caused me to change my mind. I shall, instead talk about The Tubing Effect. Ah, the agony. And the poignancy. Anyways, let's get started. So, growing up in India, we didn't have a 24 hour hot water supply as I am now used to. When I was very little, we had at home an Immersion Heater. What is an Immersion Heater, you ask? It is the most horrific device humanity has ever devised. It's basically this metal coil thing that you plug in to the power outlet and immerse in water that is in a bucket, preferably metal. Yes, you heard that right. Imagine the most dangerous device you could have at home. And then multiply it by 10. That is the Immersion Heater. Anyways, we had this at home. And I think my Mom and Dad, to ensure my safety, brainwashed me about this thing and put the fear of God, or Devil, whichever ...

I was a big black cloud today. I was boring, whiny, bad tempered and pessimistic. I tend to get like that some times. Ok, many times. Isn't it amazing though - how self involved we (fine, I) can get sometimes. Only looking at issues, at problems, at things-to-do and not at all the things that are just there in life or just happen to work quietly and without-a-hitch-edly so our life can go wonderfully on? And even when something extra-ordinary or extra nice happens, how quickly do we get used to that and take it for granted? We need windows. We need pauses. We need showers. We need windows to see outside. To watch the rain. To watch real life - not the one that is playing in our head - the crazy one that is trying to catch, plan and analyze the next moment and moments while we blatantly ignore the current one. To watch trees and clouds and the skies. To watch people hurrying down the street. And to wonder. About all those lives and thoughts. And what we truly want and are. 'Tis...

Yes, it is true. I have decided to be lazier than I usually am. To that end, I am posting some old stuff that I wrote. But first, the prologue (you know my stories are never short). Many many years ago, when I was a lowly grad student at a small desk in a sad windowless office ( as opposed to a lowly developer at a smaller desk in a smaller/sadder windowless cube), I received an email from a friend with this poem in it. Despair What have you seen today and what are you thinking? Did you learn anything new? Or is it the same old you? Failing, falling, always wrong Will you ever learn to be strong ? Grab the reins of your sick, low life and see if you can hold? Or let your fate drag you to death Afraid to be bold? Staring at defeat, right in the face, Can you rise above, and scream in glory? Well that would be a new story if you won, but can you? You won’t try to fly if the ground is giving way. I know you would sleep and let the pain stay. So rest, close your eyes and dream Of everythin...